Creditcents: Credit and Personal Finance Blog from Creditnet.com

When I was 16 years old, my mom did something I didn’t think about too much until I was older and getting ready to buy a home: she added me as an authorized user on one of her credit cards. I can’t exactly quantify the advantage this gave me at the time, but it appears to have given me the initial boost I needed to get my credit moving in the right direction from a young age.

The holiday season is in full swing, and most consumers in the U.S. will spend almost a thousand dollars on gifts, food, decorations, tips, entertaining and travel. But there’s no need to put yourself in a hole financially to enjoy the season. If you plan properly—and stick to your plan—you can have a more enjoyable, regret-free holiday.

In the United States, tipping is part of our society. Often times when receiving a service, we feel obligated to tip an extra few dollars for a job well done. In a country built on competition and capitalism, it's no surprise that tipping has been embedded in our social contract since the 1800’s. However, the same cannot be said for other countries around the globe. There’s a stereotype in the restaurant industry that servers never want a table of foreigners because they’re unfamiliar with tipping norms. While that’s not entirely true, tipping customs are different depending on what country you’re in. The following is a guide for tipping to use as basic reference, keeping in mind that specific countries and cities may have slightly different expectations.

Credit cards are convenient for making purchases quick and simple, and holding one or more cards is a sign of individual credit worthiness and responsibility. With little more than a swipe, a person can access the full range of goods and services to meet his or her needs and desires. Credit cards are an excellent tool, especially if the balance is regularly paid off. Sometimes, for a number of reasons, users need to carry a balance from month to month. Over time, this can decrease available credit and lead to a card that is maxed out.

If more married people knew how badly their finances could be devastated by divorce before they gave up on their marriages, they might think twice about going through with the big split. In a better case scenario, disentangling from one another financially alone could require many years. Risks to credit exist until this financial separation process is finally over. Prospective divorcees need to prepare themselves for the unexpected and unwanted shocks that most always happen in divorce court and afterward so that they are not caught with their proverbial pants down.

It’s probably happened to you before; panic sets in as you start rifling through bags and drawers. While your hands go a mile a minute, so does your mind as you try to retrace your steps and remember exactly where you could have left it. That’s right, your wallet is gone.

Consumers across the nation have the terms “FICO” and “credit score” embedded into their brains. These terms refer to a scoring system that judges a person’s reliability with creditors. Creditors use this main scoring system as their gospel for making crucial credit decisions. While they may use other factors in their decision-making process, creditors weigh an applicant’s score the highest in their procedures. Consumers are under the impression that they must all set their heights to achieving a perfect credit score. Is a perfect credit score worth it?

Anyone who has ever applied for a loan, regardless of the type, has probably been told that the lending institution will have to “run their credit.” The latter is a phrase that refers to obtaining the applicant's credit score in order to determine whether or not the individual is a good credit risk. This is often referred to as the person's FICO–Fair Isaac Company–score. This score is what virtually all lenders use to determine how likely it is that a specific borrower will default on a loan or other financial obligation, as well as whether or not the person will make timely payments on loans or other lines of credit.

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